1. Field of the Invention
A waste collection system for identifying and classifying waste materials into a plurality of categories and then to sort into and collect the waste material by the pre-established categories for subsequent disposal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) which was enacted in 1976 in order to control the disposal of harmful or hazardous waste materials that include many thousands of different drugs and medical waste material considered hazardous by RCRA requirements found in hospitals and other medical facilities. Thus there is an ever increasing need for hospitals and other medical facilities to audit compliance with the laws and implemented regulations as wall as industry guidelines. To economically and efficiently dispose of their hazardous materials there is a need to sort and separate hazardous materials that require special handling and disposal from nonhazardous materials.
Often medical personnel manually sort waste streams into different colored containers for proper disposal of the separate waste streams. It is always not clear which pharmaceuticals or waste materials are hazardous simply by looking at the container. Confusion can result in disposing materials such as sharps containers, infectious waste bags and drugs into non-hazardous pharmaceutical containers.
There have been efforts to mechanize the sorting and separating process. Several examples are discussed below.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,322 teaches a secure disposable container assembly for medical sharps and waste comprising a lower housing with a top having an upwardly extending rectangular opening for providing access to the housing and a top cover secured by locking tabs for permanent securement thereto. An access opening is fixed in the top for receiving materials that are dumped into the lower housing receptacle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,385 discloses a disposable container assembly comprising an open top housing for receiving an inner disposable container having a lockable cap and a bracket assembly for permanent attachment to a stationary object in combination with a lock latching means for securing an outer container to the bracket and for lockably securing the inner container in a position inside the outer container.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,138,918 shows a system for disposing of medical waste configured to sort waste items into a plurality of disposable containers comprising sorting stations each of which houses a number of disposable containers.
While some of the prior art may contain some similarities relating to the present invention, none of them teach, suggest or include all of the advantages and unique features of the invention disclosed hereafter.